Books by Christoph Mauntel
Die Erdteile in der Weltordnung des Mittelalters. Asien – Europa – Afrika (Monographien zur Geschichte des Mittelalters 71), Stuttgart 2023.
Asia, Europe, Africa - the typical order of naming the three continents known to the medieval Lat... more Asia, Europe, Africa - the typical order of naming the three continents known to the medieval Latin world is a hierarchy in which Europe by no means came first. This alone shows that the triadic order of the continents was not an abstract geographical idea. By using the continents' names, wars and expansionist movements were explained, rulers praised and enemies demonised.
This book looks at the history of the concept of the continent in the Middle Ages from the 3rd to the 16th century. The ancient origins and the adaptation by Christian authors are examined as well as the changing contexts and the representation of the continents in medieval maps and diagrams.
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Gewalt in Wort und Tat. Praktiken und Narrative im spätmittelalterlichen Frankreich (Mittelalter-Forschungen 46), Ostfildern 2014., 2014
The image of the "Dark Ages" is not least associated with the idea of the Middle Ages as a period... more The image of the "Dark Ages" is not least associated with the idea of the Middle Ages as a period marked by excessive violence. From today's perspective, violence appears basically negative and problematic: it must be justified and explained, if not at all avoided. My study takes the medieval perspective into view and asks how violence was described and interpreted by authors of the 14th and 15th centuries. Using late medieval France as an example, I analysed which practices of violence were accepted or disapproved and how ways of description were used in order to cause enthusiasm or disgust.
Das vielbeschworene Bild vom " finsteren Mittelalter " ist nicht zuletzt mit der Vorstellung verknüpft, dass diese Epoche von exzessiver Gewaltausübung geprägt war. Aus heutiger Sicht erscheint Gewalt dabei grundsätzlich negativ und problematisch: Sie muss gerechtfertigt und erklärt werden. Die vor liegende Studie nimmt die mittelalterliche Perspektive in den Blick und fragt, wie Gewalt von Autoren des 14. und 15. Jahrhunderts beschrieben, gedeutet und interpretiert wurde. Am Beispiel des spät mittelalterlichen Frankreich wird aufgezeigt, welche Praktiken als akzeptiert oder tabu galten und mit welchen Darstellungsmustern gezielt Begeisterung oder Abscheu hervorgerufen werden konnte.
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Edited Volumes by Christoph Mauntel
The construction and application of models that order complex phenomena such as ‘the world’ is no... more The construction and application of models that order complex phenomena such as ‘the world’ is not a ‘neutral’ activity: theoretical models and ideas help us to perceive and categorize the information conveyed by experience and tradition alike; in turn, they also influence the behaviour and actions of individuals and groups.
Collecting a global series of case studies on premodern societies, this volume proposes new approaches to research into premodern models of world-order and their effects. With its focus on the period between c. 1300 and 1600, it seeks to open up fresh perspectives for premodern Global History and the analysis of phenomena of transcultural contact and exchange.
Focussing on religious, political, and geographical ideas and models, the contributions explore whether and how large-scale concepts influenced or even determined concrete actions. The examples include socio-religious concepts (Christianity, terra paganorum, dār al-ḥarb), political concepts (empire) and geographical notions. A special section is dedicated to comparative insights into societies in Sub-Saharan Africa, Australia, and pre-Columbian America. Taken together, the contributions underline the importance and effects of historically shaped cultural traits in the long term.
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In the medieval world, geographical knowledge was influenced by religious ideas and beliefs. Wher... more In the medieval world, geographical knowledge was influenced by religious ideas and beliefs. Whereas this point is well analysed for the Latin-Christian world, the religious character of the Arabic-Islamic geographic tradition has not yet been scrutinised in detail.
This volume addresses this desideratum and combines case studies from both traditions of geographic thinking. The contributions comprise in-depth analyses of individual geographical works as for example those of al-Idrisi or Lambert of Saint-Omer, different forms of presenting geographical knowledge such as TO-diagrams or globes as well as performative aspects of studying and meditating geographical knowledge.
Focussing on texts as well as on maps, the contributions open up a comparative perspective on how religious knowledge influenced the way the world and its geography were perceived and described int the medieval world.
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Die Stadt Rom gilt als ein zentraler Kristallisationspunkt christlich-lateinischer Gesellschaften... more Die Stadt Rom gilt als ein zentraler Kristallisationspunkt christlich-lateinischer Gesellschaften der Vormoderne. Jenseits der sinnlich erfahrbaren Stadt, oft als "Haupt der Welt" (caput mundi) gefeiert, sind es aber vor allem Vorstellungen und Ideen Roms, von denen die Quellen berichten. Die in diesem Buch gesammelten Beiträge legen dar, wie die Stadt Rom in der Vormoderne in politischen, kulturellen und religiösen Kontexten als Ideal- oder Gegenbild inszeniert wurde und welchen Transformationen diese Vorstellungen Roms unterworfen waren. Untersucht wird Rom als geographischer Ort, als idealer religiöser Raum sowie als religiöser Gegen-Raum.
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The Medieval History Journal. Special issue 20.2 (2017)
In recent years, research on the concept... more The Medieval History Journal. Special issue 20.2 (2017)
In recent years, research on the concept of ‘empire’ has seen an upswing of interest in both Political Science and History. Definitions of ‘empire’ abound, as they do for words such as ‘discourse’, ‘performance’ and ‘culture’. Countless books and edited volumes concerning questions of ‘empire’ have been published since the turn of the century. On the most general level, however, the majority of studies on questions of ‘empire’ tend to neglect the European Middle Ages. Medievalists continue to associate the Latin terms imperium and imperator primarily with the (Holy) Roman Empire. A closer examination of the existing material in Latin and the vernacular languages reveals that many late medieval authors were far from limited in their use of imperial terminology.
This volume seeks to explore this imperial terminology as it was employed in the Latin West in two instances. The first is imperial self-designation, cases where rulers explicitly adopted or avoided the language of empire in referring to themselves or their realms. The second is the use of imperial terminology by authors from Latin Europe to describe and characterise distant and foreign regions of the world.
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The book unites ten tours through the city of Heidelberg, or rather through its medieval history.... more The book unites ten tours through the city of Heidelberg, or rather through its medieval history. Althourgh the town was destroyed twice, in 1689 and 1693, and rebuild in the Baroque style, there are many remains of its older history, famous ones as well as little-known.
Das heutige Stadtbild Heidelbergs ist nach Zerstörungen 1689 und 1693 barock geprägt. Als Sitz der Pfalzgrafen bei Rhein entwickelte sich die Stadt jedoch schon im Mittelalter zu einer der bedeutendsten Residenzstädte im deutschsprachigen Raum.
Dieser Stadtführer macht diese Überreste aus Mittelalter und Renaissance in zehn Spaziergängen erfahrbar: Zur Frühgeschichte Heidelbergs führen Rundgänge nach Handschuhsheim, auf den Heiligenberg und auf die Molkenkur, wo bis 1537 die »alte Burg« stand. In den Rundgängen durch die Altstadt treten als Akteure neben den wittelsbachischen Pfalzgrafen und ihrem Hof auch die Stadtbürger und Bauern, die Lehrer und Scholaren der Universität oder die Klöster und Adelsfamilien aus dem Umland auf.
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Papers by Christoph Mauntel
in: Historische Zeitschrift 318/3, 2024, pp. 521-550.
Mobility is often understood as movement between specific places, but is mostly accompanied by ph... more Mobility is often understood as movement between specific places, but is mostly accompanied by phases of immobility: delays and waiting times are an integral part of travelling, but have not yet been examined in detail by historians. This article introduces the topic of ‘waiting’ for historical research and explores its potential. As a first step, the numerous existing sociological, ethnological and anthropological studies are analysed for central themes and theses. On this basis, three case studies then show how pilgrims, envoys and travellers of the Middle Ages were confronted with waiting times and embedded them in their texts and reports: The Frankish pilgrim Bernhard travelled to the Holy Land between 865 and 871, but was imprisoned several times because his travel documents were not accepted as valid. In his report, he is keen to explain his readers the delays he suffered, presumably to help future travellers plan their journeys. In 968, Liutprand of Cremona travelled to Constantinople as an envoy of Otto I and had to suffer the displeasure of the court there, which became evident by long waiting times and repeated delays. Liutprand complained about this in detail in his report, also in order to justify the diplomatic failure of the journey. Finally, the Dominican Felix Fabri from Ulm undertook a pilgrimage to the Holy Land in 1480, which left him extremely dissatisfied, as he said he had too little time on site. The reason for this were numerous delays on the outward journey, which Fabri described in detail and often quite emotionally.
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in: Geschichte wird von den Besiegten geschrieben. Darstellung und Deutung militärischer Niederlagen in Antike und Mittelalter, ed. Manuel Kamenzin and Simon Lentzsch (Krieg und Konflikt 19), Frankfurt/New York 2023, pp. 319-348.
Reinhart Koselleck emphasised that those who were defeated in the war, and not the victors, drew ... more Reinhart Koselleck emphasised that those who were defeated in the war, and not the victors, drew the deeper historical insights from the events in the long term, because they had made the primary experience that everything turned out differently than planned." The article critically questions this dictum using the example of the Norman conquest of England in 1066 by looking at the English perspective.
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in: Eroberte im Mittelalter. Umbruchssituationen erleben, bewältigen, gestalten, ed. Rike Szill and Andreas Bihrer (Europa im Mittelalter 39), Berlin/Boston 2023, pp. 123-151.
In the course of the Hundred Years War, the English King Henry V changed
the traditional military... more In the course of the Hundred Years War, the English King Henry V changed
the traditional military tactic of destroying and plundering the enemy’s territories to the conquest and occupation of Normandy, which from 1415 to 1450 was under English rule. The paper analyses reactions of the Norman and Parisian chroniclers, Pierre Cochon and Michel Pintoin, as well as of the population of Normandy via exemplary studies of letters of remission. Although most Norman and French sources use a vocabulary of military ‚occupation‘, most Normans seem to have reacted in a rather pragmatic way to the change in rule: Most of all, they were interested in their own personal safety and wellbeing, no matter which king ensures this. However, as the English promise of safety and peace was not fulfilled, local unrest as well as resistance became rampant.
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in: Westerness. Critical Reflections on the Spatio-temporal Construction of the West, ed. Christopher GoGwilt, Holt Meyer and Sergey Sistiaga (SpatioTemporality/RaumZeitlichkeit 12), Berlin/Boston 2022, pp. 11-41.
This essay considers medieval European perceptions of the terms “west” and “east,” as grasped by ... more This essay considers medieval European perceptions of the terms “west” and “east,” as grasped by medieval Latin-Christian authors. It considers, first, how the “east” constituted the most important cardinal point of the compass in the medieval period; and then goes on to explore how Latin-Christian writers situated themselves to the “west” of Jerusalem, a peripheral European “west” in many ways very different from what is considered “Western” in modern and contemporary constructions of Westernness.
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in: Order into Action. How large-scale concepts of world-order determine practices in the premodern world, ed. Klaus Oschema and Christoph Mauntel (Cursor Mundi 40), Turnhout 2022, pp. 151–183.
Focusing on practices of diplomatic contact and exchange in a comparative perspective, this chapt... more Focusing on practices of diplomatic contact and exchange in a comparative perspective, this chapter argues that late medieval ideas of (secular) political organisation played a vital role in larger processes (i.e. the ‘Great Divergence’). Starting with observations made by thirteenth-century Latin-Christian travellers in the context of diplomatic contacts with the Mongol Khans, we seek to identify central structural characteristics that resulted from (and in turn informed) the political organisation and practices of ‘foreign politics’ in Latin Christianity. In spite of traditional ideas concerning the universal role of the Holy Roman Empire, late medieval political reality became increasingly dominated by practices that were based on cooperation and exchange between partners of (ideally) equal rank. As a consequence, Latin-Christian politics developed pluralistic perspectives and techniques that rendered diplomatic contacts increasingly flexible.
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in: Geography and Religious Knowledge in the Medieval World, ed. Christoph Mauntel (Das Mittelalter. Perspektiven mediävistischer Forschung. Beihefte 14), Berlin/Boston 2021, pp. 1-35.
In the medieval world, geographical knowledge was influenced by religious ideas and beliefs. Wher... more In the medieval world, geographical knowledge was influenced by religious ideas and beliefs. Whereas this point is well analysed for the Latin-Christian world, the religious character of the Arabic-Islamic geographic tradition has not yet been scrutinised in detail.
This volume addresses this desideratum and combines case studies from both traditions of geographic thinking. The contributions comprise in-depth analyses of individual geographical works as for example those of al-Idrisi or Lambert of Saint-Omer, different forms of presenting geographical knowledge such as TO-diagrams or globes as well as performative aspects of studying and meditating geographical knowledge.
Focussing on texts as well as on maps, the contributions open up a comparative perspective on how religious knowledge influenced the way the world and its geography were perceived and described int the medieval world.
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in: Geography and Religious Knowledge in the Medieval World, ed. Christoph Mauntel (Das Mittelalter. Perspektiven mediävistischer Forschung. Beihefte 14), Berlin/Boston 2021, pp. 57-82.
With over 1000 surviving examples, the TO-diagram is the most common geographical depiction of th... more With over 1000 surviving examples, the TO-diagram is the most common geographical depiction of the world in the Latin Middle Ages. It depicted the three parts of the known world in a memorable and easily replicable way. The origins of the diagram are still unclear and the subject of debate: Some scholars assert that its origin is antique-that is, rooted in non-Christian traditions-while others argue for its formation in a Christian context. The debate on the origins of the TO diagram is directly linked to the question of whether or not it can be interpreted as a Christian sign of the world. This paper considers two questions: First,whether or not the TO-diagram was ever originally intended to be a Christian sign, and second - independently from this - since when the diagram was traceably interpreted as a religious image of the world. While a Christian design of the diagram is possible (and in the author'sview even probable), it cannot be proven beyond adoubt; however, it is clear that the diagram was understood as aChristian sign by contemporaries from the late eighth and early ninth century onwards.
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in: Gewalt und Heldentum, ed. Olmo Gölz and Cornelia Brink (Helden – Heroisierungen – Heroismen, 16), Baden-Baden 2020, pp. 67-83
This paper deals with the question, in how far violence was necessary for the narrative construct... more This paper deals with the question, in how far violence was necessary for the narrative construction of a late medieval hero. As an examplary case, the Breton warrior Betrand du Guesclin (c. 1320 - 1380) is analysed. His case demonstrates how the changed reality of late medieval warfare also influenced images of heroism. Bertrand was purposefully lauded as a brave and - even more important - loyal warrior of the French crown, even more so after his dead in 1380.
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in: Gewalt, Krieg und Geschlecht im Mittelalter, ed. Amalie Fößel, Berlin 2020, pp. 157-182.
This paper deals with gender-specific fields of action and role models concerning violence in lat... more This paper deals with gender-specific fields of action and role models concerning violence in late medieval France. It argues that women played an active role in military conflicts, far from being only victims of male violence. However, (war-related) violence was described and measured according to virtues and ideals explicitly understood as male.
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in: Batailles. Une histoire des grands mythes nationaux, ed. sabelle Davion/Beatrice Heuser, Paris 2020, pp. 97-108.
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in: Zeitschrift für Historische Forschung 46/3, 2019, pp. 443-481.
This paper takes a dual approach to the topic of medieval demographic thinking between the 13th a... more This paper takes a dual approach to the topic of medieval demographic thinking between the 13th and 15th century. In a first step, the analysis focusses on travel accounts (e. g. those of John of Plano Carpini, William of Rubruk and Marco Polo) and their depiction of foreign regions and populations. Many Latin Christian travellers shared the impression that the Mongolian steppe was only sparsely populated, quite in contrast to the urban centres in eastern China, which they described in great detail. While most travellers were fascinated by the densely populated areas of the East, other authors and cartographers (e. g. Bartholomeus Anglicus, Roger Bacon, Andreas Walsperger), who did not travel themselves, reacted rather pusillanimously. The paper analyses their rather theoretical statements in a second step. It shows that the huge number of Non-Christians worried those who stayed back. They felt that 'Christianity' was under threat. Even more, they equated Christianity with Europe and compared 'their' part of the earth to the (infidel) continents of Africa and Asia. Thus, the knowledge that the travelers gained on their journeys was stripped of its admiring character and condensed into a much more negative and anxious point of view. The empirical experience might have given the impulse to think afresh about the distribution of the population of the world, but it was not necessary for the interpretation of this observation. The paper serves as a case study about how knowledge was adapted and interpreted in quite different contexts.
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in: Journal of Transcultural Medieval Studies 5/2 (2018), pp. 295–367.
This paper explores the presence and development of large-scale geographic categories in premoder... more This paper explores the presence and development of large-scale geographic categories in premodern cartography (12th-16th centuries) in a combination of comparative and transcultural perspectives. Analysing Latin-Christian, Arabic-Islamic, and Chinese maps, we demonstrate the varying degrees of importance accorded to large-scale geographic structures. The choice of related as well as independent traditions allows the identification of specific emphases, which reflect the influence of the respective cultural backgrounds and strategies applied in the ordering of space. While the analysed Chinese material concentrates on a geographical space that was perceived to form an ideal political and cultural unity without representing the entire physical world, Latin-Christian and Arabic-Islamic traditions share the focus on the whole oecumene that they both inherited from antique models. However, only Latin-Christian maps consistently and explicitly present a tripartite world that resonates with Trinitarian structures in Christian thought.
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in: Viator. Medieval and Renaissance Studies 48.3 (2018), pp. 1-25.
Between the eighth and the twelfth century, several kings on the British Isles and the Iberian Pe... more Between the eighth and the twelfth century, several kings on the British Isles and the Iberian Peninsula repeatedly referred to themselves as imperator or were called so by others. This paper compares the imperial titles used in royal charters and asks what the medieval terms imperium or imperator meant to contemporaries. Indeed, many Anglo-Saxon and Spanish royal charters reveal which ideas rulers or their scribes connected with imperial titles. This paper presents four major patterns of explanation for these exalted royal titles: Power over people, over territories, over other rulers, and over different religions. Thus, the use of imperial titles does not indicate sophisticated concepts of imperial rule, but rather highlights the increased power of individual successful rulers. This interpretation ties in with the contemporary 'name theory' common in Carolingian sources in the ninth century.
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Books by Christoph Mauntel
This book looks at the history of the concept of the continent in the Middle Ages from the 3rd to the 16th century. The ancient origins and the adaptation by Christian authors are examined as well as the changing contexts and the representation of the continents in medieval maps and diagrams.
Das vielbeschworene Bild vom " finsteren Mittelalter " ist nicht zuletzt mit der Vorstellung verknüpft, dass diese Epoche von exzessiver Gewaltausübung geprägt war. Aus heutiger Sicht erscheint Gewalt dabei grundsätzlich negativ und problematisch: Sie muss gerechtfertigt und erklärt werden. Die vor liegende Studie nimmt die mittelalterliche Perspektive in den Blick und fragt, wie Gewalt von Autoren des 14. und 15. Jahrhunderts beschrieben, gedeutet und interpretiert wurde. Am Beispiel des spät mittelalterlichen Frankreich wird aufgezeigt, welche Praktiken als akzeptiert oder tabu galten und mit welchen Darstellungsmustern gezielt Begeisterung oder Abscheu hervorgerufen werden konnte.
Edited Volumes by Christoph Mauntel
Collecting a global series of case studies on premodern societies, this volume proposes new approaches to research into premodern models of world-order and their effects. With its focus on the period between c. 1300 and 1600, it seeks to open up fresh perspectives for premodern Global History and the analysis of phenomena of transcultural contact and exchange.
Focussing on religious, political, and geographical ideas and models, the contributions explore whether and how large-scale concepts influenced or even determined concrete actions. The examples include socio-religious concepts (Christianity, terra paganorum, dār al-ḥarb), political concepts (empire) and geographical notions. A special section is dedicated to comparative insights into societies in Sub-Saharan Africa, Australia, and pre-Columbian America. Taken together, the contributions underline the importance and effects of historically shaped cultural traits in the long term.
This volume addresses this desideratum and combines case studies from both traditions of geographic thinking. The contributions comprise in-depth analyses of individual geographical works as for example those of al-Idrisi or Lambert of Saint-Omer, different forms of presenting geographical knowledge such as TO-diagrams or globes as well as performative aspects of studying and meditating geographical knowledge.
Focussing on texts as well as on maps, the contributions open up a comparative perspective on how religious knowledge influenced the way the world and its geography were perceived and described int the medieval world.
In recent years, research on the concept of ‘empire’ has seen an upswing of interest in both Political Science and History. Definitions of ‘empire’ abound, as they do for words such as ‘discourse’, ‘performance’ and ‘culture’. Countless books and edited volumes concerning questions of ‘empire’ have been published since the turn of the century. On the most general level, however, the majority of studies on questions of ‘empire’ tend to neglect the European Middle Ages. Medievalists continue to associate the Latin terms imperium and imperator primarily with the (Holy) Roman Empire. A closer examination of the existing material in Latin and the vernacular languages reveals that many late medieval authors were far from limited in their use of imperial terminology.
This volume seeks to explore this imperial terminology as it was employed in the Latin West in two instances. The first is imperial self-designation, cases where rulers explicitly adopted or avoided the language of empire in referring to themselves or their realms. The second is the use of imperial terminology by authors from Latin Europe to describe and characterise distant and foreign regions of the world.
Das heutige Stadtbild Heidelbergs ist nach Zerstörungen 1689 und 1693 barock geprägt. Als Sitz der Pfalzgrafen bei Rhein entwickelte sich die Stadt jedoch schon im Mittelalter zu einer der bedeutendsten Residenzstädte im deutschsprachigen Raum.
Dieser Stadtführer macht diese Überreste aus Mittelalter und Renaissance in zehn Spaziergängen erfahrbar: Zur Frühgeschichte Heidelbergs führen Rundgänge nach Handschuhsheim, auf den Heiligenberg und auf die Molkenkur, wo bis 1537 die »alte Burg« stand. In den Rundgängen durch die Altstadt treten als Akteure neben den wittelsbachischen Pfalzgrafen und ihrem Hof auch die Stadtbürger und Bauern, die Lehrer und Scholaren der Universität oder die Klöster und Adelsfamilien aus dem Umland auf.
Papers by Christoph Mauntel
the traditional military tactic of destroying and plundering the enemy’s territories to the conquest and occupation of Normandy, which from 1415 to 1450 was under English rule. The paper analyses reactions of the Norman and Parisian chroniclers, Pierre Cochon and Michel Pintoin, as well as of the population of Normandy via exemplary studies of letters of remission. Although most Norman and French sources use a vocabulary of military ‚occupation‘, most Normans seem to have reacted in a rather pragmatic way to the change in rule: Most of all, they were interested in their own personal safety and wellbeing, no matter which king ensures this. However, as the English promise of safety and peace was not fulfilled, local unrest as well as resistance became rampant.
This volume addresses this desideratum and combines case studies from both traditions of geographic thinking. The contributions comprise in-depth analyses of individual geographical works as for example those of al-Idrisi or Lambert of Saint-Omer, different forms of presenting geographical knowledge such as TO-diagrams or globes as well as performative aspects of studying and meditating geographical knowledge.
Focussing on texts as well as on maps, the contributions open up a comparative perspective on how religious knowledge influenced the way the world and its geography were perceived and described int the medieval world.
This book looks at the history of the concept of the continent in the Middle Ages from the 3rd to the 16th century. The ancient origins and the adaptation by Christian authors are examined as well as the changing contexts and the representation of the continents in medieval maps and diagrams.
Das vielbeschworene Bild vom " finsteren Mittelalter " ist nicht zuletzt mit der Vorstellung verknüpft, dass diese Epoche von exzessiver Gewaltausübung geprägt war. Aus heutiger Sicht erscheint Gewalt dabei grundsätzlich negativ und problematisch: Sie muss gerechtfertigt und erklärt werden. Die vor liegende Studie nimmt die mittelalterliche Perspektive in den Blick und fragt, wie Gewalt von Autoren des 14. und 15. Jahrhunderts beschrieben, gedeutet und interpretiert wurde. Am Beispiel des spät mittelalterlichen Frankreich wird aufgezeigt, welche Praktiken als akzeptiert oder tabu galten und mit welchen Darstellungsmustern gezielt Begeisterung oder Abscheu hervorgerufen werden konnte.
Collecting a global series of case studies on premodern societies, this volume proposes new approaches to research into premodern models of world-order and their effects. With its focus on the period between c. 1300 and 1600, it seeks to open up fresh perspectives for premodern Global History and the analysis of phenomena of transcultural contact and exchange.
Focussing on religious, political, and geographical ideas and models, the contributions explore whether and how large-scale concepts influenced or even determined concrete actions. The examples include socio-religious concepts (Christianity, terra paganorum, dār al-ḥarb), political concepts (empire) and geographical notions. A special section is dedicated to comparative insights into societies in Sub-Saharan Africa, Australia, and pre-Columbian America. Taken together, the contributions underline the importance and effects of historically shaped cultural traits in the long term.
This volume addresses this desideratum and combines case studies from both traditions of geographic thinking. The contributions comprise in-depth analyses of individual geographical works as for example those of al-Idrisi or Lambert of Saint-Omer, different forms of presenting geographical knowledge such as TO-diagrams or globes as well as performative aspects of studying and meditating geographical knowledge.
Focussing on texts as well as on maps, the contributions open up a comparative perspective on how religious knowledge influenced the way the world and its geography were perceived and described int the medieval world.
In recent years, research on the concept of ‘empire’ has seen an upswing of interest in both Political Science and History. Definitions of ‘empire’ abound, as they do for words such as ‘discourse’, ‘performance’ and ‘culture’. Countless books and edited volumes concerning questions of ‘empire’ have been published since the turn of the century. On the most general level, however, the majority of studies on questions of ‘empire’ tend to neglect the European Middle Ages. Medievalists continue to associate the Latin terms imperium and imperator primarily with the (Holy) Roman Empire. A closer examination of the existing material in Latin and the vernacular languages reveals that many late medieval authors were far from limited in their use of imperial terminology.
This volume seeks to explore this imperial terminology as it was employed in the Latin West in two instances. The first is imperial self-designation, cases where rulers explicitly adopted or avoided the language of empire in referring to themselves or their realms. The second is the use of imperial terminology by authors from Latin Europe to describe and characterise distant and foreign regions of the world.
Das heutige Stadtbild Heidelbergs ist nach Zerstörungen 1689 und 1693 barock geprägt. Als Sitz der Pfalzgrafen bei Rhein entwickelte sich die Stadt jedoch schon im Mittelalter zu einer der bedeutendsten Residenzstädte im deutschsprachigen Raum.
Dieser Stadtführer macht diese Überreste aus Mittelalter und Renaissance in zehn Spaziergängen erfahrbar: Zur Frühgeschichte Heidelbergs führen Rundgänge nach Handschuhsheim, auf den Heiligenberg und auf die Molkenkur, wo bis 1537 die »alte Burg« stand. In den Rundgängen durch die Altstadt treten als Akteure neben den wittelsbachischen Pfalzgrafen und ihrem Hof auch die Stadtbürger und Bauern, die Lehrer und Scholaren der Universität oder die Klöster und Adelsfamilien aus dem Umland auf.
the traditional military tactic of destroying and plundering the enemy’s territories to the conquest and occupation of Normandy, which from 1415 to 1450 was under English rule. The paper analyses reactions of the Norman and Parisian chroniclers, Pierre Cochon and Michel Pintoin, as well as of the population of Normandy via exemplary studies of letters of remission. Although most Norman and French sources use a vocabulary of military ‚occupation‘, most Normans seem to have reacted in a rather pragmatic way to the change in rule: Most of all, they were interested in their own personal safety and wellbeing, no matter which king ensures this. However, as the English promise of safety and peace was not fulfilled, local unrest as well as resistance became rampant.
This volume addresses this desideratum and combines case studies from both traditions of geographic thinking. The contributions comprise in-depth analyses of individual geographical works as for example those of al-Idrisi or Lambert of Saint-Omer, different forms of presenting geographical knowledge such as TO-diagrams or globes as well as performative aspects of studying and meditating geographical knowledge.
Focussing on texts as well as on maps, the contributions open up a comparative perspective on how religious knowledge influenced the way the world and its geography were perceived and described int the medieval world.
idea of the Ocean as a connective seaway was, at first, only pursued theoretically, it nevertheless reveals that land and sea were perceived as interrelated spheres of communication and travel in the period. In 1492, Christopher Columbus’s travels were seen to have made this theoretical connection a reality, as he initially believed that he had reached India via the Ocean.
A closer examination of the existing material in Latin and the vernacular languages reveals that many late medieval authors were far from limited in their use of imperial terminology. This introductory essay establishes the historiographical context for an exploration of this terminology as it was employed in the Latin West in two instances. The first is imperial selfdesignation, cases where rulers explicitly adopted or avoided the language of empire in referring to themselves or their realms. The second is the use of imperial terminology by authors from Latin Europe to describe and characterise distant and foreign regions of the world.
Die Veranstaltung wird organisiert von Ingrid Baumgärtner (Kassel), Christoph Mauntel (Osnabrück), Ute Schneider (Essen) und Martina Stercken (Zürich).
Die interdisziplinäre und epochenübergreifende Tagung möchte sich kritisch mit dieser These zur Historizität der Zeitlichkeit des Wartens auseinandersetzen und das Phänomen in einem breiten zeitlichen Zugriff im Spannungsfeld zwischen Vormoderne und Moderne ausloten.
Die Ereignisse des Jahres 1525 werden daher im Rahmen der Tagung mithilfe einer komparatistischen Perspektive beleuchtet werden, die sich auf zwei Ebenen erstreckt: Erstens zeitlich, indem auch Protestbewegungen des 14. und 15. Jahrhunderts in den Blick genommen werden; zweitens räumlich, indem der Fokus über das „Reich“ auf West- und Mitteleuropa geweitet wird.
The contributions of the conference aim to show to what extent the religious framing and coining of geographical knowledge continued and changed since the twelfth century. Secondly, the comparative perspective is intended to capture traditional peculiarities as well as transcultural exchange processes between the Arab-Muslim and the Latin-Christian world. Thirdly, the uniformity/variety of forms of representation (text and image) and transmission (different variants) of a given case study is to be taken into account. On the basis of these premises, the conference is designed to bring together leading experts, to take up current perspectives of research, to deepen the understanding of the examples analysed and thus to provide strong impulses for further studies.